Aside from sitting in a freezer for most of the day, I enjoy being in Control Room 5 for the pledge drive. Sitting at the sound board, my job allows me to listen to beautiful music, while monitoring impromptu conversations at the Pledge Table… this morning Kimo popped out from nowhere and started spouting pidgin with Erika Engle of the Star Bulletin. The light-hearted radio moment was so unexpected, underscoring the fact that you never know what’s going to happen with live radio… did you know that ”puka” also means zero in Hawaiian? Our phone number is 9-4-4-8-8-puka-puka.
Sometimes there are little hiccups, like when we’re in a pitch break and I realize that no music has been set up … thank goodness for the TalkBack button and Gene’s quick thinking on the fly. My classical vocabulary has grown quite a bit after playing cuts from the same few CDs this past week. I can pick out chamber music in a sec and can even discern the difference between Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. Gene and Joan are wonderful mentors and my classical lexicon is getting a workout this week. Another premium that has caught my eye is Sharon Isbin’s Journey to the New World… she’s transcribed Renaissance and English folksongs for guitar and Joan Baez lends vocals to a couple of tracks.
Yesterday the update board showed we had less than $80,000 to go on the overall goal of $741,000. Update watchers are happily anticipating the end of the Challenge 2009. Overnight the numbers have dwindled away and we are only $21,000 away from putting this puppy to bed. Once that happens, the champagne will flow and we will segue out of fundraising mode and back to regular programming. Life will settle into normalcy in just a few hours, YIPEE,thesixtyone.com here I come!
With the craziness of fundraising, I haven’t been able to record another episode of the podcast… I’m kicking around the idea of bringing on another voice to the Planet and going to a bi-monthly production schedule instead of a weekly one. The cold that came back with a vengence illustrated the fact I need to take better care of my health especially with swine flu scaring everyone. Can’t wait to get my desk back and not having to don Michael’s sweater that looks more like an afghan blanket whenever I swim in its folds. The talented folk at Hawaii Public Radio have been doing a wonderful job of drumming up support… at last glance, the board says we only need $18K more to go!
